In today""s fast-paced business world, there is a need for a smaller, faster, more capable business tool which incorporates a powerful computer with integrated communications capabilities. A personal communication assistant (xe2x80x9cPCAxe2x80x9d) having those features would greatly enhance the efficiency of a person who travels frequently, needs the portable power of a notebook PC (for tasks such as word processing, database or spreadsheet management, etc.), and also needs the ability to communicate xe2x80x9con the goxe2x80x9d using a variety of media.
In the past, personal digital assistants (xe2x80x9cPDA""sxe2x80x9d) have been used as electronic schedulers, address books, and related functions, but only recently have xe2x80x9cnewxe2x80x9d PCA""s been available with integrated communications capabilities. New PCA""s can come equipped with features such as telephone, e-mail, and fax capabilities, as well as Internet access and built-in Web browsers. Of course, the addition of several new functions to the xe2x80x9coldxe2x80x9d PDA translates into the need for more information to be displayed on a screen that is fairly limited in useable surface area.
One significant problem with a device that integrates a variety of communication features such as a PCA is that the user may be interrupted by a regular stream of non-sequential events such as e-mail, telephone calls, warnings from the system, etc. The traditional method of announcing such events is to display a message informing the user of the event and then require the user to take immediate action in response to the event. This is accomplished through a modal dialog box, also known as a xe2x80x9cpop-up box.xe2x80x9d As an event is received by the system, a pop-up box is displayed on the screen. The user must then stop work because a pop-up box requires that an option button within the box be selected before the user can return to the task at hand. However, it may be inconvenient for the user to interrupt work at that particular point in time; rather, the user would prefer to postpone action in response to the event until a more convenient time.
In existing systems, the user must select the proper option from the pop-up box (usually a xe2x80x9ccancelxe2x80x9d button) to postpone action in response to the event. Later, when the user wants to respond to the event, he or she must correctly remember it and must also know the appropriate action to take once the event is retrieved. This could lead to errors by the user. First, if responses to a number of events were postponed, the user may not remember each and every one. For example, if the user was interrupted by and then postponed responses to an incoming telephone call, an e-mail message, and a calendar reminder, he or she may not remember each event or the appropriate action to be taken in response to each of the three. Second, if the user delays taking action in response to a non-routine notification from the system, e.g., the expiration of a software license or notification of low hard disk space, the computer prompting of response options will be lost with the closing of the pop-up box; he or she may then not know how to respond to the previous notification.
In short, no central repository exists in existing devices for tracking ongoing events and the appropriate responses to those events so that the user can later access a log of what has occurred and retrieve the computer-generated response options. Currently, several programs can create a log of actions and events, but each of such logs are program-specific. That is, an e-mail program will create a log of received messages but the e-mail program must first be initiated before the log is displayed. If the active application is one other than the e-mail program (for example, a word processing program) the active application will not have access to the log, forcing the user to minimize the word processing program and then to initiate the e-mail program to gain access to the e-mail log.
There is another problem associated with the known pop-up box.
Messages can be divided into two categories: xe2x80x9cless importantxe2x80x9d messages and xe2x80x9cmore importantxe2x80x9d messages. Less important messages typically are those which are either xe2x80x9cfor information onlyxe2x80x9d or those that require a user response but are considered a low priority. More important messages are those that require a response from the user before he or she can continue the task at hand. Less important messages are usually sent to the status bar and require the user to determine which action to take, if any, and how to launch it. More important messages are displayed as pop-up boxes which have codes associated with them so that the proper action is launched upon selecting the response in the pop-up box. In the past, it was the programmer who decided how messages were categorized. It is not difficult to imagine that a programmer""s decision regarding the classification of messages will not always agree with a user""s idea of a proper classification.
Another inherent drawback to current devices is that they have a relatively small display which has insufficient space to support the use of a xe2x80x9cstart barxe2x80x9d or similar device. Desktop PC""s and even notebook computers typically have relatively large, high resolution displays. As a result, showing a multiple window environment with an area reserved for a xe2x80x9cstart barxe2x80x9d such as the one used by Windows 95(copyright) is practical. Unfortunately, this is not possible with a PCA: there, the active application occupies the entire screen. While performing a task in one application, the user may wish to access another application which had been previously minimized, or the user may not even remember if any applications were minimized at all. Accordingly, the user is forced to minimize the active application and then check the status area of the launch pad for the application desired.
Finally, most existing devices which have the capability to receive telephone calls, including PCA""s, also have the capacity to store unanswered calls. The user may later retrieve information about the missed calls such as date, time, telephone number, etc., so that the call can be returned. One piece of information that would be particularly useful to a PCA user is a reason that the call was missed in the first place, e.g., busy, refused, etc. Existing methods of storing unanswered call information do not provide this type of information. One of the existing ways to obtain call information is to retrieve the unanswered calls from the switch. However, the switch does not store a reason code for the missed call.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that the need exists for an improved PCA which allows a status message corresponding to an asynchronous event received by the PCA to be viewed in any application environment, allows a user to act upon any status message sent to the status bar, allows minimized applications to be launched from the status bar, and provides a user with an unanswered call log which contains information about why the call was missed.
The present invention includes a method of processing information with a PCA or like device using a standardized status bar manager (xe2x80x9cSBMxe2x80x9d) and status bar interfaces. All applications and the operating system""s launch pad support the status bar which can be used uniformly to both show and interact with status bar messages. In other words, the SBM links together all of the status bar areas of all applications (and the operating system launch pad as well) whenever necessary.
The method of the present invention using the SBM and its related interfaces also resolves the problem related to the PCA""s receipt of non-sequential events. When the system receives a routine event, notification of that event is routed to the pertinent application and displayed on the status bar of that application. However, if the system receives an event important enough to alert the user immediately, notification of the event and all of its associated information are sent to the SBM which then routes the appropriate information to the status bars of all currently running applications, including those which are minimized. The user then has the option of responding immediately to the message notification or postponing action by simply ignoring the message. At a later time when it is more convenient, the user may then access a status bar history file to retrieve the previously received events. By selecting an event from the status bar history log, the user also automatically implements the action code associated with the event, thus relieving the user of the need to remember the programs and options available.
The problem of division of messages into two categories (xe2x80x9cless importantxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cmore importantxe2x80x9d) is solved simply by the elimination of the two categories. The present invention totally eliminates the use of the pop-up box and routes all messages with their associated event actions to the status bar where the user has the option of responding immediately or postponing action until a more convenient time.
The minimization problem discussed above is solved with the SBM of the present invention by allowing the user to launch any minimized application from the active application. The SBM creates a launch icon for each minimized application and then displays the icon in the message area of the active application, regardless of which application is active The user may then launch any minimized application simply by selecting the appropriate launch button in the message area of the active application, thus saving time and effort.
Another feature of the present invention includes the creation of an unanswered telephone call list which, among other things, contains a field which displays the reason that the received call went unanswered. The call list can be accessed by two methods. First, the user can access the status bar history file in the normal manner and one item that corresponds to a telephone call. Second, the user can open the phone dialer application and then select the unanswered call list from the menu.
For a further understanding of the present invention and the objects thereof, attention is directed to the drawings and to the following brief descriptions thereof, to the Detailed Description, and to the appended claims.